River Watcher: A time for frogs

There's something about a frog that stirs a friendly feeling. Turtles rank a close second for gentle popularity, judging by the response to paintings I've done of the two, but that is surprising when you consider the rough, hard-backed character of the turtle, and the slimy slick amphibious frog that's able to leap into your lap with one mighty bound!

Once I was giving a nature program to a school class and I had a live bullfrog to show and tell. Somehow, it slipped out of my hands and immediately there was chaos with screaming kids utterly out of control as the frog went hopping across the room!

At the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, inmates stuff cloth frogs with scraps from the prison's garment factory and give them to the sheriff's department for distribution to traumatized kids.

It was found that stuffed frogs have more of a calming effect on kids than stuffed bears or turtles. Maybe Kermit is the basis of frog love!

In late winter, I was walking along the river and paused to check out an interesting rock. When I turned it over, a tiny treefrog hopped forth and squeezed between some pebbles in the wake of its rock fortress being removed.

A neat hideout space had been scratched out under the rock where Pseudacris regilla had intended to take shelter until spring. I carefully returned the peeper's roof and looked forward to hearing the spring chorus.

In a small side pool next to the river near the Feather River Nature Center, treefrogs creep from their rocky hiding places for the spring symphony, and even on a warm winter day, they break loose with song at any moment, although the evening hours and into darkness is their traditional rendezvous time when their peeps can be overwhelming.

Those tiny amphibians are sending out love calls in quest of a mate, and not performing for the human audience. At night they are safe from the tree-roosting, spear-stabbing egrets and herons, and other nocturnal animals don't bother with such a small morsel that can hop and dive.

All amphibians must seek out water for the mating/egg-laying process. When they lay the gelatinous blobs of eggs in shallow puddles, there is a risk of the water evaporating before development is finished.

The tadpoles must complete the stages of development before they can hop away to homes. At first, they are gilled, fish-like wigglers before legs appear and the tail is dissolved, while the gills morph into lung-like organs.

However, there is a remarkable adaptation called phenotype that quickens the growth into adulthood during emergencies!

I have found those drying puddles where dozens of dime-sized frogs were hopping in-and-out of drying mud cracks. Toads do it too.

From the peeps of the peeper frogs to the rumble of the bullfrogs, the sound of spring is a refreshing renewal for animal populations and the human soul!

"What happens if a big asteroid hits Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad."

— Dave Barry

"It is a truly wise man who does not play leap frog with a unicorn."

"If we can discover the meaning in the trilling of a frog, perhaps we may understand why it is for us not merely noise but a song of poetry and emotion."